Saturday, November 25, 2017

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Drive Down Memory Lane: Family Cars

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 


Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:


1)  Drive down Memory Lane - what were your family cars - from childhood to now, year, model, color, features.  Can you remember?

2)  Share your memories with us in your own blog post, in a Facebook post or a comment on this post.  Please comment on this post if you write somewhere else.

Here's mine:

*  The first car I recall from my childhood was a Hudson that my grandparents had.  It had running boards.  

*  The first car I recall my father driving (my mother never drove)  was a 1954 Mercury, I think it was light blue or green.  We took several vacations up and down California in that car.  Windows open, boys in the back seat, counting cars and finding different state license plates. 

*  In 1958, my father bought a pink Cadillac.  I have no reason for it, other than he got a good deal on it.  This car served us well going to and from the baseball fields in Balboa Park.  My dad drove it to Pacific Beach for work several times a week.

*  In the early 1970s, he bought a new Cadillac, and it was that car that was damaged when the cement truck went through the garage on Point Loma.  See (Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 234: Cement Truck Bashes House.

*  I didn't get my driver's license until 1966.  My first car was a used white 1962 Chevrolet Impala that my father bought for me.  I dinged it immediately trying to get out of my parking space at the apartment!  I hate poles or posts that mark spaces.

*  In 1968, after I started working at Rohr, I got a used gold two-door 1966 Ford Thunderbird.  I had my only accident in that car when a guy ran a stop sign right in front of me and I T-boned him after Christmas 1969.  Got it fixed.


*  When I married Linda in 1970, she had a light blue two-door 1968 Ford Mustang which she bought new in 1968.  She drove that to work, and I drove the T-bird to work.



*  When baby Lori came along in 1974, we needed a four door car so we could access the baby in the car seat.  We traded in the T-bird for a new orange 1974 Datsun 510.  It got better gas mileage!  Linda drove the Datsun with the kids, I drove the Mustang to work, and we took the Datsun whenever we went somewhere as a family with two little ones.

*  By 1983, the Mustang was failing, so we sold it to the neighbor's family, and bought a new light-blue 1983 Oldsmobile Delta 88, which was bigger and more comfortable for all of us.  We took several long family vacations in this car.

*  By 1986, the Datsun was failing, so we traded it in for a new gold 1987 Dodge Caravan van.  The girls were teenagers and had softball games and Girl Scout activities, and we traveled to away games often.  Linda drove the Caravan and I drove the Olds.  We took the Caravan on family vacations.

*  In 1990, Lori turned 16, got her license on her birthday, and we bought a used red 1988 Nissan Sentra for her.  She used that all through college until she married.

*  In 1992, Tami turned 16, got her license on her birthday, and we bought a used champagne-colored 1990 Toyota Tercel for her.  She used that all through college and her early married life.

*  The 1983 Oldsmobile died in 1998, and was donated to a high school auto shop.  We bought a used silver 1996 Lincoln Continental for the family car.  The girls were gone by now and we wanted comfort.  

*  Later in 1998, the Caravan broke down, so we sold it to a guy at the repair shop.  We bought a used green 1997 Mercury Sable for Linda to drive.  

*  The 1996 Lincoln broke down in 2005, so we gave it to a charity and got a tax deduction.  We bought a new silver 2005 Lincoln Town Car, which we still have.  It sits in our driveway except for weekly trips to church.  It gets 20 MPG on the highway and 10 MPG on city streets, and has mechanical problems.

*  The 1997 Mercury couldn't be smogged in 2015, so we traded it in for a new silver 2015 Nissan Altima, which is our main car at present.  We really need only one car, since Linda can't drive now, but having two is handy in case visitors need a car to drive.  It gets 37 MPG on the highway, so is much more fuel efficient than the Lincoln or Sable.  The problem now is that Tami's three kids are bigger and barely fit in the back seat!

So, between us, Linda and I have bought and run ten cars over a 50 year period.

As you can tell, we tend to keep our cars until they break down and then move up in class (and price).  The Altima is the first time we've bought a car cheaper than the one we had before.  


Note:  I found all of these images on Google Images.  I don't have photos of all of our cars.


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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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7 comments:

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

It's great you have photos of your cars! Here's my story. https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2017/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-drive-down.html

Marian B. Wood said...

We share a Mustang story! Here's my "bad car karma" post, a blast from the past: https://climbingmyfamilytree.blogspot.com/2011/01/52-weeks-of-personal-genealogy-history_16.html

Lois Willis said...

I have had 6 cars over 34 years.
https://loiswillis.blog/2017/11/26/sunday-afternoon-genealogy-fun-drive-down-memory-lane-family-cars/

Janice M. Sellers said...

I have only a few photos. I'm impressed by all of yours!

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2017/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-drive-down.html

Linda Stufflebean said...

I have a few old photos, of sorts - not the greatest views - but car details were/aren't very high on my list. If they run, I'm happy! Here is my link: http://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2017/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-drive-down-memory-lane-family-cars/

Peter said...

Already in 2011 I wrote a blog about our cars. All pictures but one are from the family archive. In most cases I recorded plate numbers, mileage, fuel consumption and when we had the car. Although the blog is in Dutch the pictures speak for themselves. I'm sure you will notice that European cars are a bit smaller compared to their US counterparts.
http://patmcast.blogspot.nl/2011/09/onze-autos.html

Altra Insurance said...

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